Classical > City of London Sinfonia Orchestra Classical

Bethlehem - Rutland Boughton

Advantages: Beautifully sung and played. Gorgeous seasonal treasure
Disadvantages: Very heavily cut

This is a glorious work and my Christmas listening is incomplete without it. The recording is first rate with wonderful soloists and fine playing. My only gripe is that it is very heavily cut, with probably about a third of the total running time missing. King Herod fares particularly badly, with only one verse of his show steeling helentenor aria included. The ballet music (very much in the style of the Bachanale from Saint Saens' 'Samson et Dalila') ...
...in the 2005 New London Opera Group production and realised just what a powerful piece it is. However, for all my gripes about cuts, this piece really needs to be more widely heard. If you don't have a lump in your throat when the third shepherd gives the baby Jesus his mittens, you have no soul! ...

ChrisCann 21.11.2007 · Read full review
Ciao members have rated this review on average: helpful
Review of Rutland Boughton: Bethlehem

mystery music

Advantages: make you image something
Disadvantages: packaging not very pretty

this classic FM relax music is one of the best instrument musics i have ever heard.some relax music can mek you feel sleep then forget tired,some relax music can make you excied ,then leave your boring things .they are all well workable i think .but this FM music can not either make you sleepy or too excited. instead it will make you feel bright and would like to start your dance .as is you are in a beautiful countryside and walk with your family ...
...will make you hear some bird pretty sound. in a word, this FM music can make you image many happy things and will help you come into many scene . after work,if you feel a little tired,please listen to it .then you will feel refresh. that is why i reconment i t ...

hugokang 17.01.2008 · Read full review
Ciao members have rated this review on average: somewhat helpful
Review of Classic FM Relax

Carry on Virgin

Advantages: The Original and Best
Disadvantages: None

“Albert’s Mum took a stick, whacked him on the thingummyjig. Albert hopped round the shop, squeaking like a tilly pig!” Emmie, Cis, Harry, Act I Scene II “Are Loxford girls all whores?” Lady Billows UPDATE 8.15pm - I am reliably informed that Collins Classics have gone off the market, and the release mentioned in the competitor versions below has been released at £9.99 by Naxos. Even so, the Britten/Pears version STILL represents better value ...
...for this 1947 Benjamin Britten masterpiece as the greatest comedy opera written in the English language. If your experience of Britten extends little beyond “Young Person’s Guide” in your schooldays, and you want to try something new, you won’t be disappointed. Don’t be put off by the idiom of Britten’s music – although it was written less than 60 years ago, it’s not “squeaky gate”. And remember how well loved Britten’s music was when he was alive ...

Zoe_South 16.10.2003 · Read full review
Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful
Review of Britten: Albert Herring

Sumptuous works by a little-known composer

Advantages: Good recordings of unfamiliar, but rewarding works
Disadvantages: None

Karlowicz is a relatively unknown composer whose chief claim to fame was his untimely death in a skiing accident just before the First World War. He left a small collection of works, the later of which (figured in this disc) show a talent that was tragically snuffed out before he could achieve greatness. The Symphonic Poems featured here reveal a composer adept at interesting orchestral effects (try the sad theme at the start of the Lithuanian Rhapsody, ...
...writing for the lower-toned instruments of the orchestra. Karlowicz has clearly learnt a lot from Richard Strauss, whose shadow fell across much pre-1914 music, but it often lacks the extrovert quality of the Gernman composer's tone poems; as the inlay notes say, there is a 'brooding' quality to much of this music, particularly evident in the middle sections of these works. Another feature of Karlowicz's writing is his tendency to pick himself up ...

chivhu 15.09.2009 · Read full review
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Review of Karlowicz: Symphonic Poems Vol 1

Music for Meditation

Advantages: A good introduction to sacred music
Disadvantages: A rather niche album on which those into the genre will find nothing new

...the same. Requiem is subtitled "music for Reflection and Meditation". It takes various well known settings of the requiem mass, together with a couple of other fitting pieces and puts them together in one place. If one is so minded, one should note that this album is NOT a requiem mass. The pieces don't follow in the right order but, having said that, to the knowledgeable, the whole album stands on its own as a good religious set. One of the other ...
...who are less well-known. When one says "requiem" one might think of Verdi or Mozart but here we also have offerings from Spanish composer Lobo (a motet) and the Italian Pergolesi (an extract from his Sabat Mater). I feel that Naxos have really got it right with this compilation. The perfect balance between the known and the unknown is struck with excerpts from the more well known Requiems by Mozart and Verdi featuring more than once meaning ...

CareBear 15.09.2009 · Read full review
Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful
Review of Requiem - Classical Music for Reflection & Meditation